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Perspectives on the Swedish Model to Prevent and Combat Prostitution and Trafficking for Purposes of Sexual Exploitation

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Perspectives on the Swedish Model to Prevent and Combat Prostitution and Trafficking for Purposes of Sexual Exploitation PERSPECTIVES ON THE SWEDISH MODEL TO PREVENT AND COMBAT PROSTITUTION AND TRAFFICKING FOR PURPOSES OF SEXUAL EXPLOITATION Wanjiku Kaime-Atterhög, PhD 1 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 3 1.1. Framing the Problem .......................................................................................................... 4 1.2. The Prostitution-Trafficking Link ....................................................................................... 5 2. The “Building Blocks” of the Swedish Model ........................................................................... 7 2.1. The Legal (restrictive) Component ........................................................................................ 7 2.2. The Social (supportive and restorative) Component ............................................................. 9 2.3. The Educational (transformative) Component .................................................................... 13 3. Thinking Ahead .......................................................................................................................... 15 4. References ................................................................................................................................. 19 Figure 1 : The “Building Blocks” of the Swedish Model, Wanjiku Kaime-Atterhög, 2018 ....................... 7 Figure 2 : Court Process; trafficking or procurement? Wanjiku Kaime-Atterhög, 2018 ......................... 9 Figure 3 : “Rooms” of Healing and Restoration, Wanjiku Kaime-Atterhög, 2021 ................................. 10 Figure 4 Personal views of the general public on buying sex, Figure 5 : Personal views of the general public on selling sex ................................................................................................................. 14 Figure 6 : Vulnerability in the Context of Prostitution and Trafficking. Adapted from Kaime-Atterhög, 1996 ...................................................................................................................................................... 16 Figure 7 : Redefining Support and Care, Adapted in 2021 from Wanjiku Kaime-Atterhög 2018 .......... 18 Table 1 : Mapping the Spectrum of Sexual Interactions ......................................................................... 6 2 1. Introduction In January 1999 Sweden passed a law to prohibit the purchase of sexual services thereby becoming the first country to pass legislation that addresses the demand in sexual exploitation. Under The Act on prohibiting the purchase of sexual services (SFS 1998:408), hereby referred to as the Sex Purchase Act, it is illegal to buy a sexual service but legal to sell, which means that persons buying sex are criminalised, while those being paid for the sexual acts, are decriminalised. The decriminalisation of the person that sells sex is combined with provision of support and assistance to exit prostitution. These social interventions were seen as a key part of the Law as indicated in the Women’s Peace Bill (1997/98:55) that states: “… the social interventions will, of course, continue to be important in order to motivate prostitutes to seek help and get away from the destructive life they lead.” The Sex Purchase Act entered into force on 1 January 1999. In connection with the sexual crimes reform of 2005, the Act was revoked and replaced by new legislation on the purchase of sexual services (Chapter 6, Section 11 of the Swedish Penal Code)1. It currently reads: A person who, in cases other than those previously referred to in this Chapter, obtains casual sexual relations in return for a payment, is guilty of purchase of sexual services and is sentenced to a fine or imprisonment for at most one year. The provision in the first paragraph also applies if the payment was promised or made by another person. Act 2011:517. The compensation can be both monetary and in-kind with the latter being, for instance in form of drugs or alcohol. The attempt or intention to obtain a casual sexual relation in exchange for payment is also punishable according to chapter 6, section 15 of the Penal Code. The scale of penalties for the purchase of sexual services is, at present, a fine2 or imprisonment for at most one year. Although the legislation is gender-neutral in its terms, there is an acknowledgement that prostitution in Sweden is gendered with the majority of those that buy sexual services being men and those selling being women.3 The purpose of the law was to combat prostitution by reducing the number of persons buying sex on the basis that in a society of equality between men and women it is “unacceptable that men obtain casual sex with women for remuneration” (1997/98:55). The demand for persons selling sex was considered to perpetuate prostitution and therefore the need for new recruitment of persons providing sexual services. Through a deterrent legal action and enhanced stigma towards the buyers, the Act on prohibiting the purchase of sexual services was expected to have a norm-changing effect in society. Due to the link between prostitution and trafficking, it was expected that by addressing prostitution the Law would also reduce human trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation as well as deter extensive organised criminal groups and individuals abroad from establishing their prostitution operations in Sweden. With the Law, Sweden wanted to send a message that prostitution is an unacceptable phenomenon in society and must be combatted (1997/98:55). 1 Legislation on the purchase of sexual services - Government.se 2 The Government plans to propose the removal of fines from the penalty scale – see “Action Package to intensify work against men’s violence against women”, 2021, p10. 3 SOU:2010:49; Ekberg, 2018 3 On July, 2018, the sexual consent law came into effect and serves as a compliment to the Sex Purchase Act. The law has introduced two new offences, negligent rape and negligent sexual abuse and both carry a maximum prison term of four years. The lack of consent is enough to constitute a crime even where there are no threats or force involved or taking advantage of a person’s passivity or particular vulnerable position. According to this law, a person has to express with words and actions that he or she agrees to the sexual interaction. The law states: “In the judgement of whether participation is voluntary, it should be taken into special consideration whether consent has been expressed in words or actions.” There has been a first conviction from the Swedish Supreme Court stating negligent rape. The impact of the Sex Purchase Act has extended beyond Swedish borders and the Swedish approach to addressing prostitution has become known as the ‘Nordic Model’ after laws inspired by the original Swedish legislation were passed in Norway and Iceland in 2009. Similar laws have also been adopted in Northern Ireland (2012), Canada (2014), France (2016), Republic of Ireland (2017), and Israel (2019). In 2014 the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe both passed resolutions that recommended the Nordic Model approach as an effective way to tackle trafficking and prostitution in Europe. 1.1. Framing the Problem The Sex Purchase Act is a result of years of research and public debates that took place in Sweden, in particular between 1977 and 1999, when prostitution began to be recognised as a social problem and a gender equality issue between men and women in society4. Historically, prostitution was not a criminal offence and between 1847 and 1864, legislation had a focus on the persons selling sexual services with a regulatory system that required them to be “inspected” once a week for sexually transmitted infections and to follow certain rules in regard to housing and how they conducted themselves in public spaces. From 1864, the focus shiffted the protection of persons providing sexual services from abuse as well as the spread of sexually transmitted infections as a show of society’s moral position. However, sexual interactions between unmarried individuals were not criminalised unless they ended up with a child. This system was abolished in 1918 afterwhich women could not be monitored in the same way. The sexual revolution of the 1960s changed society’s view of sexuality and thereby what constituted sexual crimes. There was no longer a need to regulate sex among consenting adults and the sex industry became increasingly varied resulting in worsening conditions for persons selling sex, the majority of whom were women. Substance abuse became more common as well. This led to new public debates in the late 1960s and early 1970s about sexual relations and power differences between women and men. Between 1977 and 1995, extensive government-commissioned research was undertaken to understand the problem and develop solutions. In the report “Prostitution in Sweden”5, prostitution was finally framed as a social problem that primarily affected women of low socio-economic status and that resulted in adverse health outcomes for persons selling sex. During this period 4 See SOU 1981:71; SOU 1995:15 and Olsson, 2006. 5 SOU 1981:71 4 of thorough studies and public debates, the “driver” was seen to be demand for sexual services and, thus, criminalisation of sex purchase was emphasized as something that would have a deterring effect and thereby reduce prostitution. It was also emphasized that the legislation existed
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